Fiscal crisis were the words most often used to describe last year's state budget process, in which lawmakers were forced to cut social service programs in order to balance a loss of tax revenue.
A better term might have been, "the new reality."
Maine's state and local governments are not taking in money fast enough to meet all their needs, and what happened in Augusta this winter should not be seen as a one-time event.
Managing a permanent fiscal crisis will take more than finding savings in individual programs, making them less effective.
Adjusting to the new reality will require us to take a hard look at where we spend our resources and what we get for them.
Two years ago, GrowSmart Maine started a conversation by hiring the Brookings Institution to take an in-depth look at Maine's economy.
The much-discussed report identified unappreciated strengths, including Maine's good reputation, or "brand," and its special places that attract businesses as well as tourists.
It also found that inefficiency in state and local government acts as a drag on the state's economy.
Now GrowSmart is wisely looking at the issue in more detail and is commissioning another study that would look at Maine's governmental structure.
The group starts with a question: What would Maine's government look like if you were starting from scratch?
Surely, there wouldn't be nearly 500 municipalities, or even the 80 or so school districts that will emerge from the current effort toward administrative consolidation.
There would probably be fewer police and fire departments. Services such as assessing, tax collection and road maintenance could probably be done better on a regional level.
Before those changes could occur, however, Mainers would have to decide that they don't want to spend scarce resources on inefficient government, even though that would mean giving up some local control.
The GrowSmart study, which is projected to be released next spring, could provide some insight into what we would gain and what we would give up.
That will give us a place to start a conversation that has been needed for a long time.
